The other skates: Michigan still owns Ice Dancing

Submitted by Michigasling on

Michigan students Meryl Davis and Charlie White repeated as Champs in today's U.S. National Ice Skating Championships.  I haven't been able to make comments, so I assumed I couldn't post and kept looking for last year's insider to report.  I suspect our insider couldn't post because he and his sister were busy at the competition coming in second.  I remember our insider was one of the Mich ice-skating roommate club. 

Even if our insider wasn't Alex Shibutani (below right next to Charlie), he and his sister Maia placed second today in their first US seniors, after coming in 4th in last year's Junior World Championships.  (No, she's not a student at UofM, through no fault of her own.  She's still at Huron High School.)  Both teams will now get to compete in the Worlds.

When I heard that the first 3 teams coming out of the short program trained together in Canton, I assumed one of the pairs was Emily Samuelson and Evan Bates, the Michigan students who came in second to Davis & White last year.  Turns out they couldn't compete.  Emily's skate sliced Evan's achilles tendon in practice some time ago.  (This is a sports blog, so we have to prove to the skeptics that this stuff too can be dangerous.)  He's rehabbing and hoping to be back next year.

Article about Evan, including Ann Arbor & training partner info:

http://web.icenetwork.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20110114&content_id=16439968&vkey=ice_news

Wish I could post a picture of their winning programs to show Brian that neither Charlie nor Alex were wearing sequins, but they're not available yet.

Another UM student, Lynn Kriengkrairut, came in 5th with her partner Logan Giulietti-Schmitt (a 2008 grad of EMU).  Loved their routine, and expect them to move up the board in competitions to come.  Trevor Young, a pairs skater who must be the 4th roommate in the picture above, already graduated and just came back to skating with a new partner.  If Trevor or Alex is our MGoBlog colleague, please correct and update. 

A pretty good percentage for the U.  Congrats to all.

EDIT:  Thanks, TJ.  I still don't get the comment box, so forgive me for answering you up here.  I didn't get to watch you skate, but it's great you did so well when you've been with your new partner less than a year!  Tell the rest of the team how much I loved the routines I did get to watch.

tjyoung

January 29th, 2011 at 7:53 PM ^

I was the "insider" from a few months ago:

http://mgoblog.com/mgoboard/my-roommate-olympic-silver-medalist

Charlie, Evan, Alex, and I check Mgoblog frequently. Usually in between training sessions, we take a break and check to see the latest news on the front page.

Thanks a lot for the skating update. Charlie and Alex rocked it today coming in 1st and 2nd respectively. They've both qualified for the World Championships in March. I think they both set personal high scores today and are extremely pleased with their performances. And you are correct, Michigasling. Neither one had a shiny, sequined outfit today. No need for the extra flair if you do your job on the ice.

As for myself, my new partner and I compete in a different category than Charlie and Alex. We're pairs skaters, and we competed today in our first Nationals together. It went extremely well and we placed top 10. Hopefully we move up the ranks over the next couple of years. My skating partner, Becky Bereswill, is currently a freshman at Michigan, and although I just graduated, I plan on returning in the fall to start on my Masters in Industrial and Operations Engineering.

Again, thanks for the shoutout. No doubt, the other guys will see this topic later tonight after some long hours of celebration.

EDIT: a picture of my skating partner and me at a competition. Only posting it because of the t-shirt:

Photobucket

antoo

January 29th, 2011 at 9:20 PM ^

After seeing the hotness of the women you guys skated with during the Olympics and now your partner, I regret not having taken up Ice Dancing as a youth.

Fun story: I had a neighbor in 1st/2nd grade that played hockey and it made me want to play as well so my mom signed me up for skating lessons.  Well, she actually signed me up for figure skating lessons and my neighbor made fun of me so I quit after the first lesson.  I now regret that decision.

BlueHills

January 29th, 2011 at 7:50 PM ^

True story: The Davises are family friends (my wife set them up), and my daughters babysat her. They're a really nice family. 

Meryl is not full of herself, has a great attitude, is very down to earth and just the kind of young woman you'd want to represent Michigan.

She is working out on the ice every day, plus classes, plus traveling to the compeitions. She does well in school despite the rigors of being a world-class athlete.

I don't know Charlie, but Meryl's parents tell me that he's a really good guy with a similar work ethic.

MGolem

January 29th, 2011 at 8:35 PM ^

How Evan got involved in Ice Dancing it is a cool story. For the record, his gf is smoking hot if anyone out there in Mgoworld was interested in ice dancing yet worried they could not attract the ladies.